


Comrades in Arms

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Introspection, Memories, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-14
Updated: 2008-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-28 00:17:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wintergreen reflects over the course of their lives</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comrades in Arms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/gifts).



Innocent beginnings were not what they'd had. From Korea to the Suez to Southeast Asia, there had been bloodshed, death, and betrayals enough to litter a pulp novel.

They'd withstood it all. From stopping a barracks beating to changing the face of a suicide run, Wintergreen had been there. And Slade had been right there for him, saving the old soldier from ignominy and defeat in the hands of the enemy.

In the beginning, their crossed paths had been spent with Wintergreen sharing the experiences of an older soldier with a young but eager one. That this had, on certain occasions, led to battlefield comforts, as certain faces of war were revealed, did not need to be aired anywhere beyond the cramped privacy they found.

Slade was a soldier, born to it at a time when Fate had decreed the world should be in constant turmoil. Wintergreen could not help but take pride in seeing 'his' American rise above the rest, eventually being selected as among the very best.

That Slade chose a woman who was very much his equal, or even better, to marry was a source of amusement to Wintergreen. They settled into new roles, good friends at a distance with shared histories.

The day Slade pulled him out of that cage in a jungle too far from home, Wintergreen knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the easy friendship between them was a facade, a veneer over something far deeper. Neither man was given to demonstrations of affection, but it was in the deepened blue eyes of the younger man, in the gentle way those viciously strong hands checked for injuries and treated the ones found.

It was to Wintergreen that the duties of coordinating Deathstroke the Terminator's life fell. He argued, briefly, that Addie was a woman who could accept this, that together, she and Slade could make it work and still keep the family safe. Slade's insistence that she be left free to be a mother was one Wintergreen did not fight too hard, to his bitter regret later. If he'd not been so eager to have a part of Slade's life to himself, perhaps tragedy could have been averted.

Even that, the loss of his family, was not enough to deter Slade from his chosen path...and Wintergreen walked it at his side with open eyes. He hated to think of what folly his friend might have gotten into, considering the times he had to argue Slade out of a task he had chosen.

The Titans, though, struck too close to the nerve. Slade's soldierly superstitions demanded that Grant's tasks be finished, so that Grant's soul could be at peace. After, when it became obvious Slade had known the Hive was setting everyone up, Wintergreen told himself he had failed to have faith, and redoubled his efforts to trust in Slade's planning, even when it looked like madness.

Slade seemed intent on testing that, pushing it. Each new scheme he fell into just led into a bigger plot, until Wintergreen was jumping at shadows from time to time.

Then it was the younger soldier soothing the elder, settling his nerves, and reminding Wintergreen that Slade rarely let anything escape his attention about a job, or about his life. He might choose to ignore events, but he knew of them, in general.

The adventures they shared, the ones Slade would relate to him in quiet nights, all of them kept Wintergreen feeling alive, even when he knew his aim was slipping, his ability to endure the action failing him.

And Slade, he knew, would never abandon him. Despite certain withdrawals, in the end, Slade returned to Wintergreen's sheltering security.

Wintergreen would never turn his American soldier away.


End file.
